I turned down the libel brief,
(but hope to defend after the DPP* nails the blighter!)
*DPP-Director of Public Prosecutions
Posted on 04/22/2003 7:15:58 PM PDT by Happygal
GEORGE Galloway has enjoyed considerable success in the courts during his political career, winning an estimated total of £250,000 in libel damages. In some cases, the disputes have been settled before they reach the courts, but the Labour MP has proved time and again he will call on expensive lawyers when crossed.
Mr Galloway’s biggest libel win was against the Daily Mirror and its sister paper in Scotland, the Daily Record, in December 1992. It followed the so-called "Mirrorgate" affair in which a US journalist claimed the Daily Mirror’s then foreign editor, Nick Davies, had been involved in arms dealing and the betrayal of Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli nuclear technician, to Israeli authorities. Mr Galloway tabled a motion in the House of Commons, along with the Tory MP Rupert Allason, to reflect concern at the allegations and to call on Daily Mirror publisher Robert Maxwell to appoint an independent tribunal to investigate them.
Instead, the Daily Mirror published a photograph of the two MPs with the caption: "Dishonourable men and dirty tricks".
An editorial inside accused Mr Galloway of exploiting and abusing parliamentary privilege and alleged that he was motivated by links with an Arab terrorist organisation which would do anything to blacken those it believed to be the friends of Israel. A similar attack was published in the Daily Record.
Mr Galloway was awarded £155,000 in damages and costs at the High Court in London.
In March 1996, Mr Galloway won an unreserved apology and undisclosed libel damages from the publishers of the London Evening Standard over an article that cast aspersions on his financial affairs. The newspaper accepted the article, which appeared under the headline: "Do tell us how you do it, George", had made allegations which were without foundation.
The publishers Associated Newspapers "apologised unreservedly" to the MP and agreed to pay an appropriate sum by way of damages, as well as Mr Galloway’s legal costs.
The same story was picked up and published by the Arab newspaper Al Hayat, which circulates in the Middle East and the UK, and Mr Galloway won a separate action against that newspaper three months later.
Mr Galloway said at the time "I will not be lied about, and it’s about time journalists realised that."
Three years later, he was in the courts again, this time picking up £35,000 damages from the Arab language newspaper Al-Ahram International.
The paper had described him as one of the most prominent supporters of terrorism in parliament, a claim he described as a "reckless, baseless and potentially life-threatening smear".
By this time, Mr Galloway’s frequent visits to the court had provoked one newspaper to describe the MP as Scotland’s "libel king". His response was typically forthright.
"Don’t make me laugh or I will show you my scars - incurred in nearly 25 years of short-sword-fighting on the Scottish political front-line", he wrote in a letter to the editor.
"Perhaps your in-house lawyer would explain to your correspondent the difference between slighting someone and telling lies about them. The former I have always accepted, the latter I never will."
For many years, Mr Galloway was represented by the leading media and showbusiness lawyer Oscar Beuselinck, who specialised in libel actions. He died in 1998.
I turned down the libel brief,
(but hope to defend after the DPP* nails the blighter!)
*DPP-Director of Public Prosecutions
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